On Wednesday, I explained how it was a legitimate crime story. It is not every day that a mother is accused of killing her 24-year-old daughter with her driver and her ex-husband. By Friday, I was fighting to ensure it was not the only story we covered. Fortunately, I prevailed.
In a newsroom full of television sets beaming every movement of the Mukerjeas and anyone remotely connected to them to wired youngsters on the desk who simply couldn't fathom why, like many others, we didn't spend every second of every minute devoted to it. After all, there were leading channels tweeting, '
Indrani ne jail main sandwich khaya'.
Wherever they looked, from Twitter to Facebook, from jokes to websites, the only discussion was about who was married to whom, whose children are they or how many affairs they had. Ultimate insiders were on air, speaking about their impressions of the accused (read revealing anything and everything ever told to them confidentially). Were they paid for it? I don't know. What I do know is that in a world where personal space is increasingly getting confined yesterday was a firm statement that nothing is personal anymore. Beware if you ever said anything, put something on Facebook on a weird, moody day. It will all be taken, put into context that suits the situation and put on national television for millions to see and judge your entire life based on it.
Sensational murder maybe, but does nothing else matter? Civilians are dying everyday on the international border. Gujarat is still tense. A young man allegedly died in police custody, and the BCCI still can't hold a meeting without the inimitable Mr Srinivasan (read the future of India's cricket may depend on the outcome of what happens here), everything is forgotten because a former TV promoter and socialite allegedly killed her daughter.
Is there such a lack of good fictional thrillers on TV that news channels have to fill that space? Is there such a lack of good journalism? Or, have we finally decided that as a country we only want gossip, hearsay and selective plants from the police to be shown as the only news story? According to a government agency, the Department of Advertising and Visual Publicity, cable and satellite TV news viewers in towns with population over a lakh has grown from 14 crore in 2011 to 19 crore in 2015. But for English news channels, it's not good news. For us, viewership has shrunk by almost 60 per cent. Shrinking consumer base means revenues getting hit, and that's never acceptable. Ergo, it doesn't matter what it is as long as it sells. So, is this the future of news? Is this what we as Indians want to see as crucial relevant information that matters? I wait for this week's ratings, dread filled in my heart.
(NDTV is covering the story and has done prime time programming on it.)(Manika Raikwar Ahirwal is Managing Editor and Editor (Integration) with NDTV)Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.